Sales Development vs. Appointment Setting Outsourcing

Outsourcing instead of an in-house setup has its challenges. Sales development is very different from an appointment setting. 

Outsourced appointment setting typically starts out with a SaaS application dialing numbers on a list. As connections are made, human agents navigate phone trees and gatekeepers to reach prospects and schedule appointments for your reps.

What we want you to consider once you decide to outsource appointment setting services

While there may be similarities, Magellan Solutions wants to reiterate the differences to avoid confusion and wrong expectations.

Focus

An appointment setting is about scheduling an appointment with who is willing to talk. The prospect may not be the correct person.  Or maybe not open to having a sales conversation. If there are multiple parties that should be involved, the appointment may be unproductive. In contrast, the goal of sales development is to create sales-qualified leads or SQLs. Appointments may be the end result, but only with qualified leads who are ready for serious sales discussions.

Depth

In-house teams have so much more in-depth conversations with prospects. Sales development representatives ask probing questions to discover pain points and qualify leads. Appointment setters don’t dig deep. This is because their main goal is to set an appointment. Furthermore, they don’t have the depth of knowledge to have the same quality of conversation as your own rep.

Technique

• Sales development involves so many techniques. It involves:
• Campaigns
• Websites
• Lead nurturing
• Prospecting calls to create SQLs. 

Appointment setting, on the other hand, is much more transactional.

Results

Appointment setters may have set up more appointments. But they will have a lower percentage that will result in sales. This leads to wasted resources such as representatives having more appointments with unqualified leads. This means more effort for lower returns than if SDRs made the initial calls themselves.

Missed Training Opportunities

Agents miss out on training opportunities when an appointment-setting service is used. They don’t develop skills like getting to the right contact, qualifying, pitching, answering objections, and probing for pain points.

B2B appointment setting with Magellan Solutions

B2B appointment setting is a skill. It’s crucial to anyone who’s trying to generate sales for a big business. It’s also an art that requires delicate finesse. This is because you’re trying to transform high-level decision-makers into sales opportunities. Fortunately, like any other skill, Magellan Solutions has mastered it over our 17 years of experience.

Selling and marketing in a B2B context are unique in many ways. We are fully aware that you’re trying to sell high-ticket items to decision-makers. But of course, decisions take time to make especially in a largely rational way. 

A lot of the sales tactics and tricks taught for B2C are useless or even downright dangerous to attempt in a B2B context.

The art of B2B sales takes time, experience, and hard work to master. Reaching different decision-makers within an enterprise demands in-depth research, persistence, and skill.

• Selling to businesses is different and much more complex than selling to individuals. Here’s why:
• B2B decision-makers have in-depth knowledge of the market, your products, and your competition. Sometimes, even more so than your sales team
• They represent many different people and make business decisions on their behalf. The stakes are high and they stand to lose a lot if your product fails to meet their expectations
• Unlike B2C, a single B2B sale can easily take months of negotiating, paperwork, and meetings
• As a B2B seller, you don’t just need to know your offer inside out. You need to know the market and your prospect’s challenges, so you can come up with the best solution
• B2B sales call for specific skills, training, and marketing approach. This is especially true in the segment of lead generation.

Want to up your cold emailing game and start booking more sales appointments? Fill out the form below and we’ll get started immediately.

TALK TO US!

Contact us today for more information.